"It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog" is the fifty-second episode in the Sonic Boom television series and the final episode of season one.[3] It first aired on 20 September 2015 in France and on 14 November 2015 in the United States.

Plot

At the beginning of the episode, Dr. Eggman is in his lair and has gathered all of the villains on Seaside Island. Included are the Lightning Bolt Society, T.W. Barker and his Stunt Bears, and Charlie in his mech suit. Eggman says that one member has not shown up yet, but explains anyway that he has assembled the villains to finally accomplish what they were unable to individually: defeat Team Sonic, their shared enemies. Meanwhile, at Amy's House, Team Sonic is busy putting together a Björnvaalden bookcase that Amy has bought at the foreign build-your-own-furniture store, but all the pieces are together in the box and the directions are complicated. Back at the lair, Eggman has passed around cheese, but when Barker asks where the crackers are, the doctor reveals he has none, promising he will send Cubot out to get some. Then, Eggman hears a voice behind him. It turns out to be Shadow the Hedgehog, and Eggman is overjoyed with him joining the team, being a big fan. The villains then start to argue about who should be leader as they take issue with Eggman's leadership, and Eggman decides he should train his recruits in team-building exercises to help get them all to work together.

While Team Sonic continues trying to build the bookcase, training starts for Eggman's recruits. First, the villains participate in a trust-fall exercise where each villain must fall down and trust the villain behind them to catch them. This goes well for everyone except Eggman, as Shadow is behind him; in a clear refusal to participate in the exercise, Shadow makes no attempt to grab Eggman, who lands hard on the floor but brushes off the incident. In their next exercise, the villains pass around an invisible ball while saying "zip", "zap", or "zop". The others participate, but when the ball is passed to Shadow, he does not participate again, saying nothing and simply standing there with his arms crossed. When Eggman attempts to get Shadow to participate and desperately accepts a disgusted scoff from him as a pass of the ball, the hedgehog suddenly orders him to be silent, shocking the others.

Shadow decides that he has had enough of these exercises, believes the so-called "villains" before him are nothing more than "fools that waste time" and, despite Eggman's best attempts to get him to stay, teleports out of the lair. As Team Sonic goes out to buy a new bookcase after Knuckles accidentally breaks a piece of the original, Eggman despairs over losing Shadow as an ally, certain he was the key to his team's victory; however, his recruits insist they do not need an arrogant jerk like him and voice their trust in Eggman's leadership, which gives him the incentive he needs to go through with the plan anyway. Time passes as the two teams work hard on their respective projects, Team Sonic on their freshly-bought bookcase and Team Eggman on more serious training.

Back in the Village Center, Sonic declares the bookcase finished as he and his friends ran out of parts and instructions, but there are still a lot of parts laying around, and the bookcase itself is horribly built. But things get worse, as Eggman then shows up with his Giant Robot and some of the other villains in a sudden ambush, and Team Sonic has to split up in order to defeat them all; Amy and Sticks chase after the Lightning Bolt Society because they have stolen Lady Walrus's purse, Tails pursues Moth Bot, piloted by Willy Walrus, in his plane, and Knuckles battles T.W. Barker, who is operating the Octopus Bot. Eggman teases Sonic about his team being spread thin, but Sonic is confident he can still defeat him one-on-one. However, Charlie and several of Eggman's Badniks join the two, complicating matters further.

Eggman's plan actually begins to work as Team Sonic begins to have trouble fighting all of the villains separately, but Sonic gets an idea. He stands on the end of one of the bookcase's boards, using it like a seesaw, and calls to Giant Robot, getting it to slam its hand down on the other end. The makeshift seesaw catapults Sonic into Charlie's mech suit with enough force to knock it into Giant Robot, electrocuting them both and taking them out of the fight. Sonic then jumps onto Eggman's Eggmobile and angrily gives him an ultimatum: call off the other villains, or he will "pound [him] into next week". As Eggman attempts to talk his way out of the situation, Shadow reappears and knocks Sonic off the Eggmobile, unable to watch Eggman fail further even with all the help he has gathered.

The hedgehogs then duel, with Eggman trying to keep up with the attack (and distracting Shadow in the process). Shadow is eventually able to knock Sonic into the air and kick him back to the ground with enough force to create a large crater, and Eggman gloats that Shadow has finally beaten his nemesis. Eggman moves next to Shadow to take a "victory selfie" (much to Shadow's visible irritation), but he forgets to take the flash off, blinding Shadow momentarily. Sonic then gets up and makes his move, knocking Shadow away with an uppercut. Meanwhile, the other members of Team Sonic defeat their respective villains. Having had all he can stand, Shadow tells an apologetic Eggman he is unable to properly defeat Sonic with him around, then turns to Sonic and swears the two of them will fight again, but on his terms, before teleporting out of the Village Center.

Team Sonic reunites, and they all fist-bump each other and briefly celebrate their victory before turning to the one remaining person responsible for all the trouble. Eggman tries to retreat, but the team runs toward him and begins playing a volleyball-like game using the Eggmobile with Eggman still inside as payback for his actions. Watching him being thrown around, Orbot and Cubot express their fondness of this adventure and mention that they cannot wait for more adventures with the same eight people and four main locales. Cubot adds that maybe they should start an internet petition just to be sure. Meanwhile, Team Sonic continues to throw Eggman and his vehicle around.

Goofs

When Shadow first appears in Eggman's Lair, Charlie and his mech appear much smaller than normal when a view of the villains' table is shown.

When Charlie catches Dave the Intern in his mech when he falls over, Charlie and his mech are much smaller than normal.

When Eggman is reciting the rules of Zip, Zap or Zop, Shadow is seen standing back from the rest of the group. However, when T.W. Barker passes the "imaginary ball" to him, he is standing directly opposite.

After destroying Team Sonic's shelf by landing on it and taunting Sonic about its shoddy construction, while speaking, Shadow's eyes are fully black instead of red.

Regional differences

In the Russian dub, when Orbot and Cubot say what they expect to see in season two, Orbot mentions seven characters instead of eight.

Production

According to Alan Denton, it was initially decided during the writing process of the first season of the Sonic Boom television series that Shadow was not going to be used. The reason was that if they had to, it would have to be in a way that did not make fun of him or made him look stupid or goofy. After a lot of work though, the writers came up with "It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog" which they believed both served the character and made for a funny episode.[4]

References

↑Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (21 October 2015). Retrieved on 23 October 2015. “Scott Devine: What are Sonic Boom's last two episodes' english names for the first season? / Bill Freiberger: "Counter Productive" and "It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog".”

↑Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (13 November 2015). Retrieved on 14 November 2015. “Alan Denton: Real quick, before the Twitter fun starts up again. "True story: During the Sonic Boom season 1 writing process, I had a document on my computer with every possible episode concept that we could think of. One of these ideas, way down towards the bottom, simply said, "Shadow Episode." And, next to that title, I had written these words. "Never Gonna Happen." The reason? Because if we were going to use Shadow, it had to be in a way that didn't make fun of him or make him look stupid / goofy. It took a lot of work, but finally we did come up with a concept that we think served the character AND made for a funny episode. It airs tomorrow as the final. I think you should watch it. Hugs and kisses, Alan Denton"”